Roy Jones Jr. is excited for the highly anticipated boxing match between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. He just doesn’t think a win over Mayweather would elevate his legacy all that much.
Jones Jr., a legendary boxer and current boxing analyst, told Ariel Helwani in a recent edition of The MMA Hour that Mayweather would not be the best of all time if he beats Pacquiao.
“No,” Jones Jr. said. “He’s not the greatest of all time. How are you the greatest of all time, because you’re 50-0? You’re fighting Manny Pacquiao, that’s good. And Manny Pacquiao is a good fighter. If you beat him, it’s tough because they’re gonna say, ‘Why didn’t you fight him in his prime?’ How are you the greatest of all time when you beat a guy that got knocked out by Juan Manuel Marquez?”
The 46-year-old Jones Jr., who recently retained his WBU cruiserweight title this past March, did grant Mayweather one thing: he knows how to rake in the cash.
“Are you the greatest ever because you beat a man that got knocked out by a man that you beat easily?” Jones Jr. “No, that don’t make you the greatest ever. It makes you the smartest business man ever. It makes you the best business boxer ever, because you made more money than any fighter ever.”
For Jones Jr., there is only one best of all time and it still is Muhammad Ali, a personal inspiration for him.
“If it wasn’t Muhammad Ali, I would have never boxed,” Jones Jr. “He’s the greatest because he didn’t just do it in the ring, he did it out of the ring.
“He didn’t do a lot of things that true boxers do, but look how dominant he was. He was so dominant that the whole world knew who the heavyweight champion of the world was before they knew anything else.”
Jones Jr. doesn’t even give too much credit to Mayweather for taking the bout against Pacquiao, even though it’s the biggest fight fans have wanted to see for about five years. According to Jones Jr., Mayweather didn’t really have much of a choice.
“He had to fight Manny,” Jones Jr. said. “There was nobody else available.
“His option really was only Manny Pacquiao. What else was he gonna do?”